Reminder: "Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking" discussed at the InfoShop on October 9 at 12:00 pm in JB1-080

InfoShop, DECRG (Development Economics Research Group), International Trade
Department, World Bank
International Labour Organization, Washington Office
The Financial Times

invite you to a book launch of a recent Cambridge University Press publication
TRADE IMBALANCE
The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking
by Susan Ariel Aaronson, Jamie M. Zimmerman

Trade is controversial; around the world many people believe that trade
agreements, even trade per se, undermines particular human rights such as labor
rights or access to affordable medicine (the right to health). But trade and
trade agreements can also advance human rights, directly or indirectly. In fact,
some countries use trade policies to advance specific human rights such as labor
rights or property rights. Although scholars, policy makers, and activists have
long debated this relationship, in truth we know very little about it.

This book enters this murky territory with three goals. First, it uses stories
about frogs, chocolate, culture, tires and other topics to provide readers with
new insights into the relationship between trade and human rights. Second, it
includes the first study of how South Africa, Brazil, the United States, and the
European Union coordinate trade and human rights objectives and resolve
conflicts. It also looks at how human rights issues are seeping into the WTO.
Finally, it provides suggestions to policy makers for making their trade and
human rights policies more coherent.

For more information about the book, please go to: www.tradeimbalance.net

Tuesday, October 9, 2007
12:00pm
World Bank J Building, JB1- 080
701 18th St. NW corner of 18th St. and Pennsylvania Ave.

Moderated by
Bernard Hoekman
Research Manager, Development Research Group, The World Bank
Mr. Hoekman is the manager of the international trade team of the Development
Research Group of the World Bank. He has worked extensively on the Middle East
and North Africa and economies in transition. Between 1988 and 1993 he was on
the staff of the GATT Secretariat in Geneva. He is a Research Fellow of the
London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Presented by the Authors
Susan Ariel Aaronson
Research Associate Professor, George Washington University
Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Associate Professor at the George Washington
University, teaching in the Graduate School of Business and Elliott School
International Affairs. She also works as a consultant for various organizations
including the ILO and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Aaronson is the author of 6 books and numerous articles on trade, investment,
development, human rights, and global corporate social responsibility issues
and has received over 30 grants for her research from foundations such as the
Ford, UN, Rockefeller, and Levi-Strauss Foundations as well as corporations
such as Pfizer, Intel, and Starbucks. A frequent speaker on globalization
issues, she was a regular commentator on "All Things Considered," and
"Marketplace,? and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, and other media outlets.
Aaronson is a pro bono consultant to John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative
on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and she serves on
the advisory board of business-humanrights.org.

Jamie M. Zimmerman
Associate Director of the Global Assets Project, New America Foundation
Ms. Zimmerman is conceptualizing, building and managing the Global Assets
project, a joint venture of the Asset Building Program at the New America
Foundation and the Center for Social Development at Washington University in
St. Louis. The program aims to advance savings and asset-building policies and
projects in the developing and developed world. Previously, Ms. Zimmerman was
the Associate Director of Globalization Studies at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill?s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, where she
managed research and outreach efforts for projects aimed at building awareness
of the relationship between international trade, human rights, and corporate
social responsibility. She has also worked as an international trade consultant
in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and with nonprofit micro-enterprise development groups in
Urubamba, Peru.
And Special Guest
John Ruggie
United Nations Special Representative on Business & Human Rights
Mr. Ruggie is the Evron and Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of International
Affairs. Prior to joining the Kennedy School he was Assistant Secretary-General
of the United Nations, serving as chief adviser for strategic planning to
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His responsibilities included the U.N.'s Global
Compact, intended to advance human rights, labor standards, and environmental
principles in global corporate practices. Mr. Ruggie was Dean of the School of
International and Public Affairs at Columbia University from 1991-96. He also
has taught at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, and has held visiting appointments
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Geneva), The Royal Institute
of International Affairs (London), Beijing University, and the European
University Institute (Florence).

Comments by:
Armand Pereira
Director, International Labor Organization Washington Office
Mr. Pereira is Director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in
Washington since May 2005. Before that, he was Director of the ILO Office in
Brasilia, between Jan 1998 and May 2005. He served the ILO at Headquarters in
Geneva from Jan 1982 to Dec 1997 as Senior Economist in the Employment and
Development Department (1982-1992), and as Industry Specialist in the Sectoral
Activities Department (1993-1997).

For more information or to order the book, please visit:
http://www.worldbankinfoshop.org/ecommerce/

________________________________________________________________________________________________________
About the InfoShop
The InfoShop is the public information center of the World Bank and serves as a
forum for substantial debate on international development. Our extensive
events program consists of more than 250 events over the past two years and has
hosted many internationally recognized speakers including Queen Noor, Francis
Fukuyama, Jeffrey Sachs, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Friedman, and
Carly Fiorina. The InfoShop functions as the only publicly accessible space at
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titles published by the World Bank, international organizations, and other
publishers on development issues.

For more information, visit: www.worldbank.org/infoshop

Comments about the events program: http://go.worldbank.org/TDG9T8O9K0

For information about the book go to: www.tradeimbalance.net

About ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to advancing
opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in
conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Its main aims are to
promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance
social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling work-related issues. In
promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour
rights, the organization continues to pursue its founding mission that labour
peace is essential to prosperity. Today the ILO helps advance the creation of
decent jobs and the kinds of economic and working conditions that give working
people and business people a stake
in lasting peace, prosperity and progress.

For more information, visit: www.ilo.org